Orion spacecraft another step closer to Dec. 4 launch

TORONTO – The test launch of the vehicle that will take humans to Mars got the green light from the Flight Readiness Review this week.

Orion’s test launch — which will be unmanned — is scheduled for Dec. 4 at 7:05 a.m. This historic flight marks the first time a vehicle designed for human long-duration space travel has been tested since Apollo in the 1960s.

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The European Space Agency will build the service module that will provide propulsion, power, as well as power and gas in the habitable module that will be joined to Orion on the long-duration trip.

Humans have not set foot on another celestial body since 1972 when the final Apollo mission left the moon.

Orion: The heat shield that will protect humans

NASA has outlined a bold mission of sending humans on a trip to Mars. It would mark the first time anyone has ever set foot on another planet. The goal is to get us there by the 2030s. Before Mars, however, NASA plans to take humans to an asteroid — by 2025. And Orion is the ship that will bring us home.